France from an italian perspective

Beijing 2008 Olympic Games

2008-09-02T01:56:00.001-07:00

Beijing Summer Olympics are just over and Italy has once again a better medal ranking than France. Special thanks to Roberto Cammarelle for winning the last boxing gold of Beijing 2008 in the super heavyweight category!

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	China (CHN)	51	21	28	100
2	United States (USA)	36	38	36	110
3	Russia (RUS)	23	21	28	72
4	Great Britain (GBR)	19	13	15	47
5	Germany (GER)	16	10	15	41
6	Australia (AUS)	14	15	17	46
7	South Korea (KOR)	13	10	8	31
8	Japan (JPN)	9	6	10	25
9	Italy (ITA)	8	10	10	28
10	France (FRA)	7	16	17	40

For Italy (8 gold medals) :

Boxe - Men's Super Heavy (+91kg) - Roberto Cammarelle (ITALY)
Fencing - Men's Individual Epee - Matteo Tagliarol (ITALY)
Fencing - Women's Individual Foil - Maria Valentina Vezzali (ITALY)
Judo - Women's 57 kg - Giulia Quintavalle (ITALY)
Shooting - Women's Skeet - Chiara Cainero (ITALY)
Greco-Roman Wrestling - Men's Greco-Roman 84 kg - Andrea Minguzzi (ITALY)
Athletics - 50km walk - Alex Schwazer (ITALY)
Swimming - Women's 200m freestyle - Federica Pellegrini (ITALY)

For France (7 gold medals):

Fencing - Men's Team Epee - Fabrice Jeannet, Jerome Jeannet, Ulrich Robeiri (FRANCE)
Swimming - Men's 100m Freestyle - Alain Bernard (FRANCE)
Handball - Men's Team (FRANCE)
Canoeing/Kayaking - Men's Slalom/Whitewater - Two-person canoe- Cedric Forgit, Martin Braud (FRANCE)
BMX Cycling - Women's Individual - Anne-Caroline Chausson (FRANCE)
Mountain Biking - Men's Individual Cross Country - Julien Absalon (FRANCE)
Fencing - Men's Team Sabre - Boris Sanson, Nicolas Lopez, Julien Pillet (FRANCE)
Greco-Roman Wrestling - Men's Greco-Roman 66 kg - Steve Guenot (FRANCE)

Broken Records : Italy

Men’s 50km Race Walk – Alex Schwazer, Italy, 3:37:09, Aug. 22, 2008. Previous record: 3:38:29, Vyacheslav Ivanenko, Soviet Union, Sept. 30, 1988, Seoul.

Women’s 400 Freestyle - Qualification – Federica Pellegrini, Italy, 4:02.19, Aug. 10, 2008. Previous record: 4:03.85, Janet Evans, United States, Sept. 21, 1988, Seoul.

Broken Records: France

Men’s 50 Freestyle - Qualification – Amaury Leveaux, France, 21.46, Aug. 14, 2008. Previous record: 21.91, Alexander Popov, Unified Team, 21.91, July 30, 1992, Barcelona.

Women’s 4x200 Freestyle - Qualification – France (Alena Popchanka, Celine Couderc, Camille Muffat, Coralie Balmy), 7:50.37. Previous record: 7:53.42, United States, Aug. 18, 2004, Athens.

PS One last question: where is Laure Manaudou? Ah ah ah

Football = Italy 2 - France 0

2008-06-19T01:09:00.000-07:00

Euro 2008 = Italy 2 - France 0

[In the photo] Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon showing the way home to the French coach Raymond Domenech...

Too good!

Berlusconi's back...

2008-04-16T01:07:00.000-07:00

Lost for words... Who the hell voted for him? Now the Berluska-Sarko duo puts Italy and France on the same level in terms of Banana Republics of the world: the higher one...

Sad Italy...

Ferrari wins

2008-04-07T01:23:00.000-07:00

Felipe Massa has won the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix! "After a bad start to the season, we have proved we know how to react with our actions, as usual" Ferrari sporting director Stefano Domenicali said. "Now we have to continue down this road, without allowing our absolute concentration to slip for a moment ... "

So, for now, in the general ranking,Italian Ferrari is far ahead French Renault. In fact Alonso came just tenth in the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Poor Alonso, driving such a slow car as the French one...

Results from 2008 Bahrain F1 GP

Felipe Massa (BRA/Ferrari) 1hr31min06.970
Kimi Raikkonen (FIN/Ferrari) +3.339
Robert Kubica (POL/BMW Sauber) +4.998

Constructors' points standings

BMW Sauber - 30
Ferrari - 29
McLaren - 28
Williams - 10
Toyota - 8
Renault - 6
Red Bull - 4
Toro Rosso - 2

Beautiful Ferrari!!!

Dirty French car deals

2008-04-07T01:13:00.000-07:00

Dirty deal behind the backs of offish people...

The heads of France and Germany are about to conclude a bilateral deal, which threatens to water down (already weak!) European legislation tackling CO2 emissions from cars. Greenpeace has made a petition for the European Council's current President, demanding that he and other heads of state stand up for the climate.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION NOW.

Greenpeace will deliver the petition to the President of the European Council on Monday, and every day before 12 April.
The German government is driving this--putting the immediate commercial interests of German luxury car-makers before the safety of the planet. Sarkozy is riding along with Merkel because he needs Germany's support for his grand plans for a Mediterranean Union.

Source: GREENPEACE

The French keyboard

2008-04-04T00:59:00.000-07:00

I have just found a blog that is very funny. It's called 'The French baguette'. There is a post which is very interesting to me about the French keyboard.

As you can read on that post, the author asks himself why the hell those Frenchies have to use a non standard 'occidental' keyboard.

I don't have a technical answer to his question. What I know is that, in general, French don't like sharing other peoples' ways of doing, so, I suppose, they wanted to swap around some keys (A and Q, for instance) just to look different.

How pretentious they are... don't you agree with me?

Why AirFrance?

2008-04-03T23:48:00.000-07:00

Of all the companies of the world, why it has to be AirFrance that wants to takeover Alitalia? The Italians don't want them. They don't want this French takeover on our flagship carrier. You see them quitting takeover talks with their very French pompous attitude? Let them go then. They know very well that buying Alitalia they would win access to one of Europe's biggest passenger markets. They are pompous, but not stupid.
Apperently Berlusconi is the only one defending Italian interests, but, please, don't forget the past, don't vote for him, or our future will be doomed at an even higher degree.

No to AirFrance-KLM. No to Silvio Berlusconi.

There's must be a better solution...

My tag cloud!!!

2008-04-03T06:28:00.001-07:00

created at TagCrowd.com

Mispelling recipes

2008-04-03T02:29:00.000-07:00

French have a common habit for misspelling Italian recipes names: take any of the pizza recipes and in France you'll find many different ways of writing them.

As background information, I can say that just a few real original recipes do exist:

Pizza Napoletana
Pizza Margherita
Pizza Quattro Stagioni
Pizza Quattro Formaggi
Pizza Capricciosa

Happily enough, in Italy there is a bill to safeguard the traditional Italian pizza, specifying permissible ingredients and methods of processing. Only pizzas which followed these guidelines could be called "traditional Italian pizzas", at least in Italy.

Italy has also requested that the European Union safeguard some traditional Italian pizzas, such as "Margherita" and "Marinara". The European Union enacted a protected designation of origin system in the 1990s.

Here's the links to the related websites: Pizzeria italiana tradizionale

But I am not writing this post to talk of ways of making pizza. My aim is to show how Frenchies misspell our recipes, by simply inventing words that do not exist!
Let's take for instance Pizza Margherita, many transcriptions can be found in the restaurant menus or even on recipes websites:

Pizza Margarita
Pizza Marguerite
Pizza Marguarita
Pizza Margharita
Pizza Margiarita

etc, etc, etc...

This is very deceiving to me! I can't get how people starting-up a restaurant cannot have a look in an Italian dictionary to find the right word to use... Should I open a restaurant and put down a list of dishes, I would first check their correct spelling, especially for foreign recipes. How can a hungry customer looking for an italian meal trust a would-be Italian Restaurant that wrongly spells recipe's names?

The correct form is "pizza" and "pizze" in the plural. Not "pizzas".

"Napoletana" and not "Neapolitana" or "Napolitana" or "Napolitenne" or "Napolitaine".

"Salame" in the singular and "Salami" in the plural form.

And "Panini" is the plural form for "Panino": you can't ask for a panini!! But you can ask for a panino or for two panini. That's not that difficult, isn't it?

I really would appreciate Italian Restaurants in France mangling Italian recipes names. And maybe they could count on more eager customers to come and taste. In the meantime I won't hesitate to publish on my blog pics of funny Italian unbelievably misspelled menus that I will find during my stay in France. And I am sure you will enjoy...

French Wine?

2008-04-02T07:20:00.000-07:00

A Study of wines sold in the EU, including a number from France, were found to contain a range of pesticides, with one bottle from the sample containing ten different varieties.

This is maybe why you sould taste Italian wine, which is better and healtier.

Source: 'Wine contaminated with pesticides, study claims' post on This French Life blog

Related posts: 'Fighting in the kitchen'

XC Skiing - Giorgio Di Centa vs Vincent Vittoz

2008-04-01T04:15:00.000-07:00

Moments to remember: Giorgio Di Centa defeating Vincent Vittoz for the final 50kms XC Skiing Race in Turin 2006 is surely one of them! The Italian stayed with the lead pack for the better part of two hours, then sprinted away in the final few hundred meters to win the men's 50-kilometer race.
I watched the race with most of my French colleagues and, despite being alone, I enjoyed seeing the French champion, Vincent Vittoz, desperatedly trying to follow Giorgio!
The Italian was too strong that day, and my work colleagues had to pay the check for the Spumante! I won't really forget their typically-French pompous look vanishing during the race... Moments to remember, as I said, moments to remember!

Rome vs Paris - Comparing monuments...

2008-04-01T01:39:00.000-07:00

Today's face-to-face: 2000 years old Roman Colosseum (originally known as the Flavian amphitheatre) against the Tour Eiffel (built for the 1889 World's Fair). Two pics, two cities, two different worlds... and it is up to you to comment which one you would visit!

As a technical information, the Colosseum was built to host bloody gladiatorial combats and wild beast shows and can be visited for just 8 euro! And for the same price you can freely visit the Arch of Constantine (AD312) just on its west side and the Palatin Hill, center of the imperial power for centuries.

The Eiffel Tower is 320 meters high and can be visited for 10 euro... a little expensive to visit what it is just a television antenna!

Spike of jealousy

2008-03-27T23:00:00.000-07:00

A spike of jealousy. This is how I define the French jeering at a possible EU ban on one of its best-known culinary products, the Mozzarella. In fact, following Magnini's joke on Alain Bernard having found "new good vitamins" to win the Eindhoven European Swimming Contest, the French are trying to defeat Italy's three major point of interests: cuisine, football and tourism.
Three patriots have come to protect Italy from this attacks. Paolo De Castro, Silvio Berlusconi and Roberto Donadoni.

First, Italy's Agriculture Minister has quickly answered the world demonstrating his confidence in mozzarella. He said that only 83 farms out of 1,900 are concerned by the dyoxine, and that their products have already been taken off the market. And, I dare to add, any italian product is much less contaminated by pesticides than any French product, as you can see on this post.
And, let me say, even if Japan and South Korea have halted imports of the mozzarella amid concerns about contamination, we don't care. Mozzarella is good for us and if they don't want to eat it, they can stick to McDonald as much as they like.

Second, Berlusconi, in a urge of patriotism, is defending the Italian airline, Alitalia, from the French attack. "Why are we giving our national company to the French?" Berlusconi asked in an interview published Thursday by the Turin daily La Stampa. "It's madness!". "The Italian consortium exists," he emphasized, naming the Ligrestis, Benetton and MedioBanca as possible savers.

Third, the Italian football coach Roberto Donadoni has claimed that Italy is in good shape heading towards EURO 2008 despite the 1-0 defeat in an international friendly against Spain. French should just keep silent and calm, because the umpteenth debacle is on his way for them. Italy will undoubtedly win the 2008 European Championship.

The question is now obvious: are we becoming a real united country? I hope so. And in any case whole Italy liked the performance of Carla Bruni who impressed fashion experts with her restrained glamour Wednesday as the French presidential couple arrived in Britain for a state visit.

General Ranking

2008-03-27T22:50:00.000-07:00

General ranking in reverse cronological order of an unending competition between two cousin countries: France and Italy. Remark: this is a historical record of the main events where both France and Italy have been put face to face and that I find interesting to show on my blog. See who’s winning!

EVENT NAME	INFO	OVERALL SCORE
Beijing 2008 Olympic Games	Italy comes 9th with 8 gold medals. France comes 10th with 7 gold medals.	Italy 6 - France 3
Eindhoven European Swimming Competition 2008	Russia comes first with 25 medals and 12 golds. Italy comes second (with 21 medals and 5 golds). France comes third (with twelve medals and 5 golds).	Italy 5 - France 3
Eindhoven European Swimming Competition 2008	Pellegrini beats Manaudou world record in 400m freestyle	Italy 4 - France 3
Eindhoven European Swimming Competition 2008	Alain Bernard beats Filippo Magnini	Italy 3 - France 3
Rugby Six Nations 2008	France easily beats Italy twice	Italy 3 – France 2
French Politics	Carla Bruni becomes French First Lady	Italy 3 – France 1
Euro 2008 Football Cup	In the B group, Italy comes first and France comes second.	Italy 2 – France 1
Euro 2008 Football Cup	France beats Italy 3-1 at home	Italy 1 – France 1
Football World Cup 2006	Italy is World Champion and France runner-up	Italy 1 – France 0

... TO BE CONTINUED!...

Suspicious records

2008-03-25T04:53:00.000-07:00

It's swimming time. And, for the occasion, French Alain Bernard shattered (with a time of 47.50 seconds) the 100m Freestyle world record for the second time in two days at the European Swimming championships on Saturday. He had in fact already beaten the world record the previous day, finishing in 47.60 seconds in the semi-finals. Furthermore, during the very same competition, Bernard lowered the 50 m freestyle world record to a time of 21.50...

Many people were suspicious about these performances. How could this newcomer swim so fast? Was human his last four years progression? Or was it the result of doping?

On the podium, Nystrand (2nd) and Magnini (3rd) shuffled uncomfortably when Bernard received his medal. Neither smiled. Nystrand could even be said to have scowled. They shook the champion's hands more out of a sense of sporting duty, it seemed, than in genuine honour of the man who had thrashed them. Did they know already the truth? Were they thinking what the Italian Champion, Magnini, let courageously slip afterwards: that the big over-pompous French "had found the right vitamins"?

Many criticised Filippo for his declarations, but, happily enough, the French journal Le Monde was doubtful about the correctness of their swimmer's world record and talked of "performances surprenantes"...

I hope we will soon get to know the truth. And, in the meantime, I say: Go Magnini go! While whole depressed and repressed France is celebrating their hero without even asking how he managed to swim that way, we Italians know you are the faster one.

And in any case our Federica Pellegrini is giving that Laure Manaudou the lesson she was in search of, beating her 400m Freestyle World Record. And she is now the current European Champion of the 400m.

Italy vs France, a match again!

Berlusconi in the limelight against France

2008-03-22T07:56:00.000-07:00

Berlusconi being nationalist? I didn't think so when I heard he had said he would veto Air France-KLM's deal to buy Alitalia if he won next Italian election. I reckon he is just looking for far-lost notoriety by showing nationalism to a people who is not that nationalist any more. Italians are part of a united nation only when Totti, Pirlo, Cannavaro and Buffon play together. For the rest of the time, we simply don't care.

In any case I think that this time our grown-old Berlusca is playing his cards the right way, because one thing Italians don't want is to be subject of haughty France.

And I also consider that France should stop trying to think of itself as a colonialist country. Colonialism has long gone, France! Stop thinking you should export your way of doing/being and reckoning you are an international power, because you are no more. Just like Italy, I don't deny it. This century is in more powerful and bigger hands: United States of America, Russia and evidently China. Capitalism on one side and Communism (or Socialism, if you want to call it so...) on the other... The rest of the world is just watching and I am incredulous at the idea that other countries think they can play any role in future world definition. This is true for stupid France. This is true for stupid Italy: I heard the Italian Prime Minister asking China to stop military aggression to Tibet... do you think they heard you little voice, Romano Prodi? Bigger (economical) interests are at stake, today. Not just useless France or Italy's elections. Not just Malpensa or Fiumicino monopoly of Italian main hub. Far more relevant problems are to be faced, with, in the background, a cold-war-like situation. Democratic western countries want regions like Kosovo or Tibet be independent (or at least autonomous) and human rights to be respected. At the same time overgrown China (that has just passed the US in the number of Internet users!) and historically powerful Russia don't want to loose their hold on their people. At any (human) cost.

Who do you think will win? I don't know, but in my worthless opinion the only role smaller countries can play is to be ready to switch on the right side at the right moment... and in the meantime everybody should keep himself informed on international issues more than on which movie are going to be produced at Hollywood. Supporting movements like Amnesty International one is a good idea too, because united we can win, but I don't really imagine a world where everybody can eat just like Italians or French. Because, sadly, there won't be much food left on the planet in a few days.

Can anybody hear me?

Beauty contest and blindness of pompous people

2008-03-22T07:40:00.000-07:00

I see in one of the surveys in the right column of this blog that someone (surely a short-sighted French) has voted for Cécilia in a beauty contest with Carla (Bruni) Sarkozy.

No comments...

I just invite you (if you haven't done it already) to compare the two presidential ladies on Google Images, by clicking on the following links:

Any doubt left?

Unwanted takeover...

2008-03-17T03:32:00.000-07:00

Sad news today: apparently Alitalia is going to be bought by Air France... How is this going to happen? Do Italy really need help from France? I can't believe it!!! We should not leave France ingest in our national problems. In my opinion, the truth is that the French government wants to become stronger and have an international recognition of their country. And expanding the partnership Air France-KLM with the acquisition of Alitalia would be very rewarding for the government, especially after that the European Airbus consortium (EADS) had won the megamillion dollar contract to supply their air planes as refuelers to the USAF.

I think the Italian leaders are going crazy and, with elections approaching, wrong choices are being made! A state of confusion is on the road in Italy, as usual.
Berlusconi is getting older and even more penny-pinching. His opponent, colorless Walter Veltroni, is for the first time on the road to success. Umberto Bossi keeps having an idiotic separatist attitude... At the same time the low class is more concerned by who will win the Campionato (Football League) between Inter and Rome (go Roma, go!!!) than by economical and strategic events like that French takeover on Alitalia.

Where are we going then? Having our Alitalia company bought by a country like France, that is ruled by a president who is mixing roles (family, party and presidency), leave me lost for words... and Italians really don't like the idea of being taken over by the French.

And yet I don't really think we have a choice this time: France will finally be successful, after losing the Football World Cup and having had to accept an Italian first lady.

I would like to take advantage of this post to give my support to every "Boycott China" operation! Please respect the human rights of the Tibetan people!

Banana Republic 2 - The stars

2008-03-13T07:52:00.000-07:00

They are taking part in the new Absurdistan competition:

For France:

Nicolas Sarkozy
Dominique De Villepin
François Fillon
Ségolène Royal
Zinedine Zidane
Carla Bruni (undercover)

For Italy:

Silvio Berlusconi
Romano Prodi
Alessandra Mussolini
Umberto Bossi
Antonio Sgarbi
Marco Materazzi

Who are you for today?

Banana Republic

2008-03-12T23:02:00.000-07:00

Some years ago, Italy, under Silvio Berlusconi's "government" , was internationally admitted to the prestigious list of Banana Republics of the world. A well-deserved recognition for the work of a man who was selling his country in the name of money.

The Economist called him a "crass buffoon" and "a man of very questionable integrity."
He embodies "nepotism, corruption, and dishonesty," said the Danish newspaper Information.
The Swedish daily Aftonbladet dismissed him as "an arrogant clown."
The German newspaper Berliner Zeitung wrote that he was "a shady deal maker,"
France's Libération concluded that he was a "threat to liberal democracy,"
The Financial Times argued that "he lives in a media bubble where his public gaffes and gratuitous insults go largely unreported at home—at least until he goes abroad."
A blogger said "That stupid dwarf is selling our country, making his own laws, acting as if the constitution is a catalogue of options...

At the beginning of 2007, the list of Absurdistan Countries of the world was the following:

Honduras, thanks to the domination of the export sector by the United Fruit and Standard Fruit companies;
Pakistan, thanks to declaration of President Musharraf: "I can assure you that nothing will happen in Pakistan. We are not a banana republic.";
Italy, thanks to many people who contributed to reach an astonishingly high level of confusion in a organised and democratic country.

We were proud of ourselves. Our tremendous political leader had given our country the possibility to get this international recognition in just a few months' work!

Today Sarkozy, evidently jealous of the title Italy had been given, has raised his own country to this international recognition too. He firstly shortlisted first-class people to help him undergo this moment of glory. Through long analysis, a few praise-worth people where chosen.

In 2007:

Segolene Royal (who faced Sarkozy in a wonderful tv match, but lost her temper during the highly-watched duel)
Francois Fillon (coming straight from the Adam's Family movie, with his pale face and dark eyes)
Dominique de Villepin (and the ignominious Clearstream affair)

In 2008, not happy with the result, Sarkozy decided to hire an expert of the Banana's sector. And, after deep reflection, got the idea of looking for an ally in the country he was just trying to follow: Italy. This is how the former italian supermodel Carla Bruni got on a plane to the Elisée and married Little Sarkozy.

Following a well scheduled plan, she made the following actions, in order to achieve the beloved result:

Publicly criticise France and French just before marring their President: "I like to be Italian. I like the Italian temperament and I like Italian food. French people are in a bad mood for some reason, and Italian people are in a good mood. French people are always negative. They also are crazy about their own language, so every time there's something that's not in French, they get so mad about it."
Get naked. Sensational pictures of Nicolas Sarkozy's reported wife Carla Bruni posing naked have left the French President red-faced after being posted on the Internet.

To complete the cake, Sarkozy had a heated exchange with fishermen during protests against rising fuel costs. And he traded insults with a man who refused to shake his hand at France's huge annual agricultural show.

French couldn't ask for more. Their president was performing very well.

And now France, thanks to President Sarkozy, can be awarded with the famous "Absurdistan Prize".

But, let me say, far behind Italy that, with the presence of people like Umberto Bossi (Leader of the Padanian Paranoiac Separatist Movement), Alessandra Mussolini (Fascist just like that well-known Benito), Vittorio Sgarbi (Founder of the incredible Party of Beauty), had reached levels no on else could reach in a Democratic Republic.

France, just a runner-up then. Once again...

Rome vs Paris...

2008-03-10T13:47:00.000-07:00

When you are willing to compare Rome to Paris it is just like you are trying to compare gold with brass , or, as Frenchies say, "vous etes en train de melanger les serviettes et les torchons"!

To me, Rome comes definitively first in the comparison with Paris. Ok, I like being pompous too. Or do French have the copyright on pompousness?

I want to invite you to read these two posts (and the related comments) which I inexpectedly found very interesting:

Please do not hesitate to leave comments and opinions!

Please stop blogging in French now!

2008-03-10T10:13:00.000-07:00

Today I was reading an article on "Top 20 des blogs les plus influents en Europe" and I found many comments from France asking for a separate list of French blogs.

The subject of the post was easy: a web site (Wikio) is trying to make a list of the top read european blogs.

Full stop. No interpretation possible.

But French readers were not happy with that (as usual, I daresay). They wanted to have their list of blogs. They wanted Internet blogs to be weighted on the effective number of bloggers for each language. Sounds crazy, n'est-ce pas? French do believe that their language is still a reference in this virtual world. How silly. Internet is dominated by English and, until Chinese explosion, this won't change. The world does not go back. Languages change and evolve in unpredicted matters and you French should stop trying to embalm this flow.

For the audience, you should know that French are very narrow-minded. As an insider, I can tell you they never go on holiday in places where French is not spoken. That's why they limit their overseas trips to the DOM-TOM (Overseas departments and territories of France). If they cross a border they assume everybody should be ready to interact with them in French. If they buy a software, they immediately ask for the manual in French, be it or not a French software!

Sometimes ago I bought a Garmin GPS and I was astonished discovering on the forums that French were not able to decipher the provided manual in English. Going through the posts on E-bay, I found out that if a French manual was not joined to the GPS they would send the product back to the seller...

When coming to France you will soon realize that they have their own travel guides, Le Routard, while the rest of the world can do with Lonely Planet Guides...

I could go on and on and on, but I would waste then the possibility to make this blog grow up. So come back for future posts and you will find that French pompousness has no boundaries. The sky is the limit! Even though...

Rugby: France - Italy: 25 - 13

2008-03-10T01:49:00.000-07:00

Ok, ok, ok, France has won. No problem at all!

Italians won't go yelling around that France cheated.
Italians know we are not good rugby players.
Italians will say it was a good match.

In my opinion, the match was really interesting. I'm not used to watching rugby matches, but, I must say I liked this one. The two teams where strong, and France suffered a little, notably in the lineouts, but scored three tries by fullback Anthony Floch, centre Yannick Jauzion and wing Aurelien Rougerie and collected 10 points from the boot of scrumhalf Dimitri Yachvili.

Italy on its side fought bravely. No regrets then. And, most important, no dramas. Cause Italians are not drama queens.

Fighting in the kitchen

2008-03-07T02:08:00.000-08:00

During the last Paris’s Agricultural Show (Salon de l'agriculture), Sarkozy, after insulting a man who refused to shake his hand ("Go away, you bloody idiot," Sarkozy said), called on UNESCO to put his country's gastronomy on its world heritage list...

This made me smile. And left me lost for words.

In fact, strictly following the French pompous standard, Sarkozy (who's not known for his gourmet tastes) declared: "I want France to be the first country to apply to UNESCO, from 2009, for our gastronomic tradition to be recognised as a world heritage. We have the best gastronomy in the world."

Mmmmh…

Italy immediately challenged France's aim of being the first country to have its cuisine put on a UN World Heritage List, with Italian farmers (Coldiretti Association) saying they produced much more speciality foods than the French.
Italian farmers said their pasta, pizza, wine and cheese could easily see off a challenge posed by the haughty French President.

The Coldiretti declaration can be easily confirmed by the fact that Italy has 166 food specialities recognised by the European Union. Poor France, as always, comes in second place with 156," said Coldiretti, adding that Italy could also "beat the Frenchies on their own ground, with Parmesan (Parmiggiano) in the area of cheeses and many wines".

Italy's superiority is also confirmed by many facts. Here’s just a short extract of them:

Every single one knows our Pasta and our Pizza and every single one loves them.
Italy is the queen of biological agriculture. Italy is the third country of the world for its number of biological enterprises. It comes first in Europe for the cultivation of lemons and oranges, grapes, wheat, vegetables and cereals. Italy has over 4000 restaurants, farm hotels, markets, school canteens and shops where Italians spend around 1.5 billion euro in biological products, nearly 24 euro per capita. According to a research made by the Chamber of Commerce of Milan Italy comes fourth in the world also for the number of hectares dedicated to biological crops (954.361 hectares). Italy follows Australia, China and Argentine, three countries that are bigger than Italy. Italy comes third also due to the number of enterprises (36,639) that produce or sell bio-products. Italy has won many prizes in Europe. It has won the gold medal for the number of biological products (33 pct in Europe). Italians spend around 1.5 billion year for biological foods and school canteens that use biological foods have risen by 6.4 pct from 2004. In Italy there are also 185 markets, 804 farm hotels and 1014 shops that sell biological products.
Today, Italy is the largest producer of wine in the world with more vineyards than any other place, including France.
Spumante is now outselling Champagne, and in 2006 exports of Prosecco broke the threshold of 100 million bottles.

On the other side, McDonalds is France's number one restaurant with over 1000 locations... how charming! France could easily ask for McDonald’s leadership in the EU and I think nobody would disagree with him!

Now, reader, you do understand the reason why I'm lost for words at Sarkozy's unintelligent idea. And I am sure you all agree with me that France should be very very careful with its future declarations about cooking.

Carla Bruni, where are you? You should intervene and let your dear Nicolas taste our specialties. Then and only then he would understand that his country is just a runner-up. Once again.

Sarkozy, Basescu, Merkel. And the pen of destiny.

2008-03-04T14:05:00.000-08:00

You may have heard it: some days ago French President Sarkozy was visiting Romania to launch a strategic partnership with the former communist country. During his visit in Bucharest, Nicolas Sarkozy met President Traian Basescu and signed a declaration for a partnership focused on defense and security. Just after signing he fell in love for the pen he had just been using and decided to keep it for himself, as showed in many videos.

This action has been widely criticised in France. Many people complained about the fact that he could have afforded buying any pen and that he needed not begging the Romanian president.

Yesterday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy met and, after talking about a Mediterranenan Union project, the former offered the latter a pen to add to his collection. Evidently she was making fun of him publicily (many journalists were present, as you can see in this video here...) .

How wonderful! Everybody is making fun of the French President now. First his own people. Now even a european leader. I think that all of this is evidently due to the incredible development of medias. Being able to watch important people makes us discover that they are exactly just like us: common people.

Sarkozy is one of us. He can steal a shining pen. Angela Merkel too is one of us. She can make jokes.

At the same time all of this is historically very shocking:

I have always taught of German people as serious people. I dont know why. Maybe it is just an historical heritage. And I seen the german chancellor getting excited.
At the same time, I have always taught of Frenchies as honest people. Or, if I give it a second thought, Frenchies have always believed that Italians were thieves.

As far as I can see the world is changing. Germans are at last making jokes, French begin to steal and Italians... well, no, I don't think Italians are getting serious or honest... but this is how we are. And we like ourselves very much!

P.S. Italywise, I suggest you to look at this funny movie gag: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj6Epj-J7R0